Siri alternatives for Android users

The only thing that was major about the unveiling of the iPhone 4S was the new Siri voice assistant service. All the other stuff about the iPhone 4S was just not that interesting. If you are on an Android phone and like the idea of Siri, several apps out there will give you similar features right now. Extremetech ran down the top five Android apps that are like Siri, see what you think of their choices.

The first is Vlingo Virtual Assistant, which is a free app with ads or $2 to remove the ads. It has more than a million downloads and the app is one of the best by some accounts. You can voice dial with the app, send texts, and emails as well as conduct local search. Sonalight Text by Voice is the next app and it will cost you $20 per year. It lets you text using your voice and reads them back to you too.

Google Voice Search/actions is the next on the list and it is free. You can access this by clicking the mic button on the keyboard. The fourth choice is Edwin, Speech-to-Speech. This gives you voice control for different features and you can ask it odd questions since it works with Wolfram Alpha. It is free as well. The last is Speaktoit Assistant, also free. This app is like Vlingo in functionality and has an avatar on screen you talk to.

OR you could just get FlexT9. It’s an Android IME (keyboard) with voice recognition by Nuance and that way you can voice enable virtually everything on Android. If Nuance sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same company that powers Dragon Naturally Speaking and Oh yeah, Siri!

That said, Siri is like most iPhone features these days, behind the curve. FlexT9 has been available on Android for no less than 6 months (maybe even a years).

Have fun demonstrating how the iPhone 4S isn’t an “upgrade”, but another crippled “smart” phone from Apple.

Kyle

I use Voice actions Pro. Then I gave her an English accent and named her ding dong. I press the speech button and say what is your name? and she replies Ding Ding in an english accent. so awesome haha she also does lots of other amazing things. there is a video of everything you can do on teh download. There are also little easter eggs you get when trying different things.

Anonymous

Incidentally, I don’t agree with the how the title of this article is phrased.

Implying that natural language voice recognition was pioneered by Siri would be a mistake. There have been tons of other solutions that have been around for a while.

It should be more like: “Voice Command” or “Natural Language Recognition”… If you want, “Natural Language Recognition that happens not to be Siri”

Paul Werner

I agree with Kyle, if you want the best then choose Voice Actions Pro. Here’s the youtube vid:

The only alternative I could think of that would actually be worth the competition is Speaktoit. It is different from other voice-input tools on Android because it supports something called “Conversation Mode” which is what gives Siri that organic flow. It will automatically prompt you for answers by popping up the voice input screen, and more. This review describes it better: http://www.eldorito.com/reviews/speaktoit-assistant-android-alternative-to-iphones-siri/

The whole idea is that the interaction stops being a “command”, and becomes a “conversation”. It answers questions and other inquiries, it can do things that would ordinarily be multiple actions – and turns them into a single sentence